Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch ‘not a fit person’ to run a major company

Rupert Murdoch has been savaged by a damning parliamentary report into phone hacking at the News of the World, which concluded that the media mogul is ‘not a fit person’ to run a major international corporation.

News International chairman Rupert Murdoch with his wife Wendi Deng and his son Lachlan (Picture: EPA)

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which reopened its inquiry into phone hacking following the closure of the News of the World last year, said Mr Murdoch displayed ‘wilful blindness’ towards allegations of wrongdoing in his organisation.

The report, published today in Westminster , found News Corporation and its UK newspaper arm News International guilty of ‘huge failings of corporate governance’.

MPs on the committee said the instinct of News Corporation chairman Mr Murdoch and senior executives had been to ‘cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators’.

They also accused former News International executive chairman Les Hinton and ex-legal manager Tom Crone, as well as former News of the World editor Colin Myler, of misleading the committee during its inquiries.

James Murdoch also recently appeared before the Leveson Inquiry (Picture: Reuters)

Committee members were split on many of the report’s findings, with four Conservative MPs refusing to back the headline finding that Mr Murdoch was not fit to run a major international company.

The report accuses Mr Murdoch’s son James, who resigned as executive chairman of News International and chairman of BSkyB this year, of ‘wilful ignorance’ about what had been going on.

Director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer and former acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police John Yates were also criticised for failing to ensure allegations of voicemail interception were investigated.

But the most damning judgment was reserved for Mr Murdoch Snr.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was told she should accepted responsibility for the culture at the News of the World while phone hacking was carried out (Picture: PA)

‘On the basis of the facts and evidence before the committee, we conclude that, if at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications,’ the report states.

‘This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International.

‘We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.’

The committee mostly steered clear from naming individuals who have been arrested in connection with phone hacking at the News of the World and the alleged cover-up in order not to prejudice any eventual prosecutions.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Mr Myler was brought in as News of the World editor after Andy Coulson resigned in January 2007 following the jailing of the paper’s royal editor Clive Goodman for intercepting the voicemail of royal aides.Since the closure of the News of the World he has been appointed as editor of the New York Daily News.In response to the committee’s claims he said he ‘stands by’ previous evidence.Mr Hinton meanwhile said he was ‘shocked and disappointed’ by claims that he was ‘complicit’ in a cover-up.The longtime ally of Mr Murdoch Snr resigned as chief executive of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, at the height of the phone hacking affair last July.

‘I am shocked and disappointed by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s allegations that I have misled Parliament and was “complicit” in a cover-up,’ Mr Hinton, who headed News International between 1995 and 2007, said.’I refute these accusations utterly. I have always been truthful in my dealings with the committee and its findings are unfounded, unfair and erroneous.’

The report will later by presented to Parliament with MPs likely to hold a debate on its findings (Picture: Reuters)

The committee’s findings are entirely separate from the ongoing Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, which has seen Mr Murdoch Snr’s company in the headlines again.

The conduct of culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who headed up the judicial review of News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BSkyB, has been called into question after a senior aide resigned when emails were published showing information about the review was being passed to the Murdochs.

Mr Hunt, who is due to appear before Leveson later this month, continues to insist his conscience is clear but the opposition are pressuring prime minister David Cameron to fire the culture secretary over alleged breaches of the ministerial code.